The close confidant of ex-prime minister Gordon Brown said that private companies’ use of multitasking made them much more efficient, and also suggested that a more hard-nosed approach to government procurement could save taxpayers £1billion a year.

“They employ God knows how many million civil servants, and if you spent the time that I spent in Whitehall, you do have to ask yourself sometimes what half of them are doing,” said Lord Sugar, in an interview in this week’s Radio Times. “When I compare it to my commercial organisation, we have people who multi-task, and if you applied that multi-tasking philosophy within the civil service you would cut the labour force by half.”

The public service isn’t directly comparable with private enterprise but our government’s directive to move resources from the back office to front-line services shows improvements can be made.

Interestingly Lord Sugar’s view shows some consensus between the left and right in Britain on the need to rein in the public service.

The left here is still to realise the wisdom of reducing the burden the state imposes on taxpayers.

. . . yesterday he said he would now probably not decide until after he had further consulted his supporters in Northland.

“The people back home make the decision on where and when. So I will be taking it back to them to get their views.”

What’s happened between Saturday afternoon and now?

Could it be that Harawira is discovering that establishing a political party and fulfilling the requirements of registration take considerably more organisational ability than he’s got?

Or has he done the maths?

Being a leader of a party in parliament would give him considerably more money than being an independent.

But if he resigns he loses his salary and expenses immediately. A couple of months or more with no income wouldn’t be easy either personally or politically.

Campaigning is a lot more difficult, and expensive for someone who isn’t an MP, especially one who’s gone from an MP’s income to zero.

Then there’s the difficulty of explaining to would-be supporters why he wants to waste $500,000 on a by election when there’d be only 21 sitting days left after the winner was sworn in before parliament rises for the general election.

To markedly increase its vote Act has to take support from other parties.

Its policies on Maori issues might find favour with some who are supportive of New Zealand First. Every party gets votes from the bewildered and disgruntled so some of those will go from any other party to Act too.

Most of its votes are likely to come from the right and it will get some from National. But if Act could only get 7.1% when National was at its nadir, how likely is it to take a significant number of voters from the bigger party when it’s so popular?

History suggests Acts constituency isn’t very big. A new leader could make a difference but past election results indicate it would be difficult to get much above 7%.

1776 Rhode Island became the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III.

1799 Fourth Anglo-Mysore War: The Battle of Seringapatam: The siege of Seringapatam ended when the city was assaulted and the Tipu Sultan killed by the besieging British army, under the command of General George Harris.

1814 Emperor Napoleon I of France arrivesdat Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile.

1814 – King Ferdinand VII of Spain signed the Decrete of the 4th of May, returning Spain to absolutism.

1855 William Walker departed from San Francisco with about 60 men to conquer Nicaragua.

1961 American civil rights movement: The “Freedom Riders” begin a bus trip through the South.

1970 Vietnam War: Kent State shootings: the Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opened fire killing four students and wounding nine others.

1972 The Don’t Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organisation founded in Canada in 1971, officially changed its name to “Greenpeace Foundation“.

1974 An all-female Japanese team reached the summit of Manaslu, becoming the first women to climb an 8,000-meter peak.

1979 Margaret Thatcher beccame the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1980 President Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia died in Ljubljana at the age of 87.

1982 Twenty sailors were killed when the British Type 42 destroyer HMS Sheffield was hit by an Argentinian Exocet missile during the Falklands War.